Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email

Candy Science Experiments

After attending the 4-H science club this weekend and seeing how excited the boys were about watching candy experiments I decided to round up all the candy science experiment ideas we've done (and a few new ones to try) in preparation for the weeks to come.

It's a great, fun, and educational way to use up some of that Halloween candy! Here are the ideas I've come up with so far:

1. Dissolving Peeps experiment (would work with any marshmallow candy). We've tried dissolving peeps in a few different liquids to see which one would dissolve the peeps the best and how long it would take.

2. Microwaving various candies to see HOW and if they'll melt. Usually we set a few pieces of candy on a paper plate and make predictions about which one will melt first, what they'll look like when they're done and then watch through the window to see what happens. Some candies puff up before deflating, others get all waxy looking. It's really neat to see.

3. Dissolving hard candies in water-- we've tried hot and cold water, water/ vinegar/ oil/ other liquids, etc. We've timed how long each candy takes to dissolve. We especially enjoy dissolving a packet of hard candies like sweet tarts into different liquids making sure to drop them in all at the same time and then seeing which one dissolves first.

4. Chromatography-- see what colors are used to make up each of the candies colors. This one is so much fun! It really shows all the food dyes in used in candies.

5. Floating "s": dissolving skittles until the S floats off the top. I had no idea that the s would actually lift off the candy and float in one piece along the top of the water. It was also pretty neat to put a few skittles together and watch all the colors dissolve and separate.

6. Sink/ float: seeing which candies are buoyant and figuring out why. We filled a bowl with water and made predictions about which candies would float and which would sink. It was a simple test but I was surprised by many of the results.

10. Growing Gummy Bears we discovered that gummy bears grow in size when left in a bowl of water! They absorb the water and we had a fun time measuring and comparing the two bears.

11. Dancing Worms we cut up some gummy worms into small strips and dropped them into a cup of water. We then added a few tablespoon of baking soda and let the whole thing set aside for 15- 20 minutes. We filled a glass with vinegar and then added our worms to it. The baking soda that coated them makes them bubble and dance in the vinegar.

12. Making a density rainbow. We tried one year but our results were not as wonderful as the one in the link! It was a lot of fun to break down all the candies and see the colors separate though.

13. Breaking open jaw breakers much like geodes to see what is inside. Some of the jaw breakers would even lead to a great lesson on the layers of the Earth!

14. Excavating for peanuts in the snickers bar; relate it to mining and the effect it has on the Earth around it. We did this one year with chocolate chip cookies and it was so much fun!

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My middle guy became an official teenager this week and I just can't believe how fast the time flew right by. We've had an extra fun week this week even with managing to get a lot f schoolwork done!

Here are some of our favorites from the week:

We had a fun little cupcake decorating party for him with a handful of friends last Friday and we're celebrating with family tonight. We're also spending the day together just the two of us going out to lunch and browsing for as long as we'd like at Barnes and Noble. I just love this annual tradition we started a few years ago!

Evan put together another Lego set; he bought this using his Christmas money and put it together in one short afternoon. Two days later both him and Alec spent hours in the afternoon playing with all of the Ninjago sets.

While I do not enjoy cleaning out the turtle tanks it's always fun to watch this guy try and escape... we've renamed him Houdini.

I'm the first to admit that I am not one to think of going on YouTube for much of anything! My boys often watch videos though and I have stumbled upon some pretty great ones that our whole family enjoyed watching.

What have you been up to? I'd love to hear from you either in the comments or by linking up your own blog post! Please join us!

Welcome to the Love to Learn Blog Hop
A collection of educational activities to instill a life long love of learning in our children.
Enjoy learning through play, nature, crafts, and many other educational activi…

Welcome to the January Pinterest Challenge Blog Hop, hosted by My Pinterventures. The purpose of this Pinterest Challenge is to motivate all the participants of this hop (and you too) to not just pin, but to make it happen!

The boys and I had making homemade marshmallows on our winter bucket list and decided to use this pin/ recipe to help us.

Now I will fully admit that I do NOT like marshmallows at all. The taste is just fine but I can not get past the texture and so maybe I'm a bit biased when I sat they were very time consuming and I'm not sure they were worth the work.

The boys all piled into my bed for some snuggling and cuddling. We talked and just enjoyed hanging out with one another for quite a bit. Once they all started tickling one another, feet were flying and wrestling ensued I decided to sneak out and spend some time on the computer coming up with a plan of activities.

It seems our weeks go best when I have activity ideas already in my mind when the week begins.

If we don't get around to them it's not a big deal, but it seems to work best if I have suggestions for some fun learning games and projects.

Typically I only plan enough activities to last us until lunch and then they're on their own for actual unschooling.

I don't force anyone to participate in any lesson or activity; I suggest things to do that I hope they'll be interested in.

Lately, I've made the mistake of not having ideas at the ready and it seems like we're all floundering for things to do. I started out trying to make a list of 5 activitie…

We have soaked an egg in vinegar before to make a "bouncing" egg like many Pinterest photos show but I was intrigued with the idea of taking the experiment one step further.
We read that if you coat one egg in a fluoride toothpaste first that the fluoride will protect the shell for the acidic vinegar and keep it from breaking down as fast.

We thought it sounded like the perfect experiment to try!. We got out two eggs, two small mason jars (with lids) and a tube of toothpaste.
First we smeared toothpaste all over one egg and then set it aside to dry on the counter for 24 hours.

The next morning we rinsed off the toothpaste egg as best we could and with both eggs ready we poured 1/2 cup of vinegar into each mason jar. We put the lids on and labeled the jar with the toothpaste egg so we'd know which egg was which.

Then we set them on the counter and observed them for the next two days.